"Hijacked on the Road to Love"

Rob Carlson


A sparkling gun,
a bright green finger
the sun's eyes open,
blazing down
the finger tenses -
snaps back the trigger
A bullet made of sound
explodes from the barrel,
faster than light to
assassinate the sun.
What a mess then,
what a horrible mistake,
The bright green finger killed the laughing sun!

And all of this upon waking,
Reflected the girl,
Who climbed out of bed
And put on blue slippers.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes,
Then flipped and spun on her head,

Away from this land,
And into the sky
She hadn't thought much,
About the clouds or the birds
Sure enough there was an eagle
soaring through a cloud
It looked at the girl spinning on her head,
And said in a whisper,

'Why are you out of bed?'
The girl ignored the eagle,
And flew towards the dead sun,
Intent upon resurrection,
And she reached its smoking ashes,
followed by the eagle,
Who was curious about this girl,
Spinning on her head,

There was nothing she could do for the sun,
It was quite dead
The girl whirled with a look,
Kicking her legs to and fro,
But saw no shining gun,
Nor a bright green finger.

So she went into space
With the eagle on her tail,
To explore the dim stars
That mourned the loss of Sun,
While in space she only found,
A sobbing moon left alone,
Mute from the morning,
The moon only stared
At this wonderful scene,
A girl set on spinning,
And whirling on her head

Then on a suggestion of revenge,
The moon swallowed the girl
And digested the eagle,
Then burped with contentment,
And smiled frost fangs

The girl opened her eyes
And found herself in bed,
In a dark silver room,
In the belly of the moon
She screamed in her heart
And looked for the eagle,
Who was locked in a cage,
Singing like a canary
swaying on a perch

All of this now tragic,
For the girl and the eagle,
Who were gobbled out of sight,
They remain trapped forever,
While the hollow body of the once lovely girl,
Was cared for in the hospital
by her parents:
Streaming tears when they found her,
Lying splayed upon the floor,
With blue slippers on her fists
A music box opened by her head,

An empty bottle labeled magic,
Resting between her breasts,
All of this so tragic,
As her dreams looped forever,
Inside the belly of the moon,
With the imprisoned eagle
With no purpose,
She slept on and again,
While her parents brought her flowers,
And mourned on her birthday.

Elsewhere was a young lad,
Who hunted for his love
On a white stag he searched through forests,
Guided by an eagle
He combed the mountains and then
down in the desert,
eventually into oceans,
But when the white stag drowned,
He cursed at the sun,
then sank down in the water,
And drowned a thousand times,
Burning out his lungs,
His heart imploded with pressure
Around and again in the ocean

The girl cried out into sleep,
About an eagle and the moon,
Loud in her parents ears,
She demanded magic be returned,
And then slipped back into coma,
While spinning on her head

Elsewhere was a young lad,
Locked up in a cell
For vehicular homicide
And the theft of some antlers
Which he had glued to the
hood of his car
As he sped off into the city
His friends and family wept,
And tried to visit him when they could,
But he just silently stared,
Locked in oceans and drowning dreams,
An empty bottle labeled magic,
found back in his room

All of this so tragic,
All of this so jailed,
Like a canary - so jailed

So some may sing of eagles
And the goddess in the moon,
While still others mourn the white stag,
And curse the demon in the sea,
And to this day their love burns on,
Searching through the world,
And pounding against the walls,
Of ancient congealed magic,
Cutting up the paths of heart,
And flooding eyes with regretful liquids
That drips down over frozen faces,
Paralyzed sides of a similar coin,
Forever lost in magic


Back to Fall 2006